LL: He Does Not Change

*This is a part of our series, "Lessons Learned", where we're reflecting on what we've experienced over the last 9 years of ministry! For the rest of the series, you can check the main post: Introduction

We will always be grateful for the ministry of Circuit Riders, DCO, and the launching of our organization from 21 Project in 2015. Around the same time that we started, a message from that group came out (can't find the podcast now, but if you find it please feel free to link it in the comments!). In that podcast, listeners were challenged: are you asking for a sign when God already gave you something to do? He does not change His mind, He gave you a calling and you have a responsibility to answer.

This lesson has really carried us through difficult times, because this calling is our purpose:

"For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. "He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. Deuteronomy 10:17-21 NKJV

Isaiah 1:16-18 is at the heart of Empty Frames Initiative.“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.”

Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Extol Him who rides on the clouds,

By His name YAH, And rejoice before Him.

A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows,

Is God in His holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families;

He brings out those who are bound into prosperity;

But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

Psalm 68:4-6

Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy; Free them from the hand of the wicked.

Psalm 82:3-4

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

James 1:27

There are some really key verses in the Old Testament where it speaks of widows and orphans - so many of those verses stand out to me because in those passages the Israelites are first being told what to do, and later rebuked for not doing it. Exodus 22:22 “You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.” In Jeremiah 5:28 it is speaking of wicked men found amongst the people of Israel. The Lord calls them out saying, “They have grown fat, they are sleek;Yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked; They do not plead the cause, The cause of the fatherless; Yet they prosper, And the right of the needy they do not defend.”

We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. 1 John 4:19-21

We, the church, have a calling. God does not change.

Our calling has not changed.